His eyes spark with the same joy I’m feeling, and we both take off, our bare feet pounding against the wooden boards of the pier as we run hand in hand towards the edge. We jump, and our hands break apart as we hit the water and go under.
Fuck.
It’scold.
“Fuck!” Levi shouts as we break the surface of the water, and all I can do is laugh.
“Terrible fucking idea,” he says, turning and immediately swimming for the shore. “Oh my god.”
Winston barks at us from the pier, pacing along the edge as his tail wags furiously. Apparently, he thought the jump was a bad idea, too.
The cold spreads through me as my skin prickles and my muscles tighten, but I can’t stop laughing as I follow Levi out of the water.
“Oh my god, oh my god,” Levi continues to mutter as he runs onto shore, shaking the water out of his hair. He turns and glares at me as I walk out after him and shakes his head. “How the fuck did we not freeze to death doing this as kids?”
I shrug, looking back at the water as a sharp chill spreads over my skin from the breeze in the air. “Because we were young and dumb?”
He huffs out a laugh, his shoulders lifting as he shivers, and when our eyes meet, his expression softens.
Water clings to his dark hair, catching the sunlight as it drips down over his forehead, and droplets trace slow paths along the curve of his cheek. I watch one fall down the line of his jaw, and I lift my hand to catch it with my fingertip, letting my touch linger as I drag it lightly along his skin.
Levi steps into me, sliding his hands around my waist to pull me close, then presses his lips to mine.
I breathe him in, wrapping my arms around him as his warmth cuts through the cold, and I hold him against me.
For the first time in a long time, my world feels whole.
And even though we’re out in the open where anyone could find us, I can’t let him go.
Because every time I touch him, kiss him, and just look at him, I feel my love for him growing and shifting into something both familiar and new. The love that was always there… but was maybe something I didn’t fully understand.
As our lips part, I look into his eyes and smile.
“You and me, Vi.”
His eyes shine bright as he presses a soft kiss to my nose.
“You and me, Si.”
FORTY-THREE
“I walked the whole field today,”Silas says, nodding seriously as he keeps his eyes on the road. “Plants are measuring about four inches now and are coming up even across all zones. And the low spot has dried out. And some weeds are coming in along the edges, so we’ll need to spray this week before it gets into the rows.”
I smile as Silas turns his truck into the parking lot of the pub, the excitement in him seeping into me, too.
“I actually looked at the emergence timing data today,” I say as he shifts the truck into park. “Most of it came up within the same couple of days. There’s barely any lag between zones and sections, so tubers should be forming consistently across the field. Meaning an unlikely chance of uneven growth.”
Silas smiles widely at me as he unbuckles his seatbelt, but before he can reach for the door, I lean over the console and curl my hand around the back of his neck, pulling him in for a kiss.
He hesitates for a moment as our lips meet, and I suddenly realize what I’m doing. We’re in a parking lot, where anyone could see us.
But seeing the joy in him and feeling his excitement… I just couldn’t resist.
Neither of us pulls away, though, and our hesitation fades as we lean into the kiss and hold it a moment longer before we pull apart.
I could do that all fucking day.
Reluctantly, I turn away from him to open the truck door and hop out. Why we decided to go out for a beer tonight instead of staying in so I could run my lips all over his body… I’ll never know.
